Newark Liberty among worst U.S. airports for 2011 arrivals, departures

Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerTravelers look at the arrivals and departures board in Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport

NEWARK — Your flight into or out of Newark was delayed over Thanksgiving? Not a big surprise. The government ranked Newark Liberty International Airport next to last among major airports in on-time arrivals and departures in November.

What’s that, you say? Your flights earlier in the year were late, too? Even less surprising. Newark Liberty did even worse for the 11-month period from January through November 2011, ranking dead last in on-time performance for both arrivals and departures.

The federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics said Thursday that 75.2 percent of arrivals and 80.22 percent of departures at Newark were on time in November, ranking the hub 28th of 29 major airports in both categories. Newark can thank San Francisco International Airport for keeping it off the bottom on both counts.

But Newark did rank worst for arrivals and departures among all major airports for the period between January and November 2011, with on-time rates of 66.25 percent and 72.78 percent, respectively. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport topped both lists, at 86.14 percent for arrivals and 87.9 for departures. Newark’s rankings were only slightly better for comparable periods a year earlier.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty, attributed the airport’s perennial tardiness to its role serving the nation’s busiest air travel market. The agency reiterated its support for the Federal Aviation Administration’s proposed Next Generation Air Transportation System, a multi-phase, multi-billion dollar satellite based control system intended to cut delays.

"Flight delays in our region -- one of the world’s busiest airspaces -- are mostly the result of poor weather and high aircraft volume," the Port Authority said in a statement Thursday. "The agency also has been one of the nation’s leading proponents of NextGen satellite technology to replace decades-old radar and allow closer spacing of planes while maintaining safety."

Experts said last year’s heavy snows and rainfall, and even a freak October snowstorm, all interfered with air travel in the region.

John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports also ranked consistently rank low in on-time performance. LaGuardia was 27th in on-time arrivals in November, and 22nd in departures. Both airports ranked near the bottom for the January-November period.

The transportation statistics bureau also released on-time arrival rankings for 16 domestic airlines. Continental Airlines, which accounts for two-thirds of all flights at Newark Liberty, ranked 13th for November and 12th for the 11-month period year-to-date period. Continental merged with United Airlines in November.